Manu Katche Unstatic

When the talented session drummer Manu Katche decided to release his own solo effort, his colleagues from studio gigs with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman, and Dire Straits were happy to sign on to help the talented Mr. Katche record It's About Time. Among them, guitarists Daniel Lanois, keyboardist Simon Clark, and sax legend Branford Marsalis join Katche to create some thrilling jazz- and funk-influenced rock cuts. Warm and soulful, Katche's tunes reflect the influence of Nothing Like the Sun-era Sting, perhaps more than any of the other artists that the drummer previously supported.

After a four album stint with ECM, French/Ivorian percussionist Manu Katché releases his ACT debut, recorded on an electrifying evening (in June 2014) in the famed Parisian club New Morning. Katché and his quartet played some 130 concerts last year, which gives them impressive cohesion; the sound is superbly solid, sweeping all before it. Braced by layers of Hammond organ from the subtle Jim Watson, trumpeter Luca Aquino now standing in for the excellent Nils Petter Molvaer takes flight.

Third ECM album by French-African drummer Manu Katché, following the best selling 'Neighbourhood' and 'Playground'. 'Third Round' features a completely revised ensemble line-up, but is faithful to a group concept that The Guardian described as "beautifully mutated grooves and jazzy themes", with all participants elevated by the physical presence of Katché's beats and drum patterns. Once again, all music is written by Manu, and his insinuating melodies testify to parallel lives in pop and jazz. The album was recorded in the South of France with producer Manfred Eicher.

Manu Katché went to the Conservatoire but his musical origins are to be found in rock music. Even though the drummer extraordinaire has listened to a lot of jazz music, he hasnt played that much of it. The case gets even harder to crack when you listen to Katchés tenth album, The ScOpe, where he digs deep into the roots of groove music all the while incorporating the modern sounds of machines. The album cover designed by Arno Lam appropriately pictures Katché sideways an African profile he says- and indeed Africa is the underlying musical theme of the whole album. But this sensual statue is highly flammable if you consider that Manu Katché also knows about dancing he practiced it as a kid, goes out dancing in clubs and after all, you need all four limbs to play the drums he himself remarks.

Eagerly awaited second ECM album by French-African drummer Manu Katche. Recorded in New York’s Avatar Studio in January 2007, “Playground” picks up where the best-selling “Neighbourhood” left off: in the interim the project has coalesced into a rip-roaring and fully-integrated band. Manu’s group, featuring a Polish/Norwegian confederacy of young players, is energized by his hard driving drums and by his compositions which invite spirited solos… Together, the quintet - whose strong new frontline features Mathias Eick and Trygve Seim - makes exciting, zestful music.